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This thesis focuses on the interpretive possibilities of the tensions between slavery and the American Revolution that are present in cities that faced British occupation. The history of the occupation is an avenue to incorporate the history of black men and women alongside traditional narratives, which can compel visitors to apply lessons of the past to contemporary problems. By focusing on occupation, I propose that we can expand interpretations at historic sites where the history of the American Revolution is already interpreted for the public by centering on the stories of black men and women who had to decide between joining the British and escaping slavery or remaining enslaved. By surveying the current interpretation of the British occupation in the cities that were occupied, the current interpretation of slavery in these cities, and recent literature on best practices for the interpretation of slavery, this study makes a series of recommendations for Philadelphia’s small and large historic sites. By taking on the task of interpreting black lives during the occupation of the British, staff at such sites has the opportunity to expand its work to not only meaningfully expand African American history, but also expand our public understanding of the complicated meaning of liberty during the Revolution. / History

Few historical works focus on the period of German history immediately following World War I. Fewer still inquire about how the Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD) regime exercised power. This paper looks at the rhetoric in the MSPD's party organ Vorwärts to understand how they presented themselves to the German people following the collapse of the Imperial regime. The official party organ provides unique insight into how the MSPD regime transitioned from a party in opposition to leading the provisional government and how it justified holding that power. The official party newspaper of the radical Spartakusbund coupled with the conservative Neue Preußische Kreuzzeitung provide a context to further understand the rhetoric of the MSPD and how the opponents of the majority socialist regime responded to the interim government. The MSPD was in a difficult position after the collapse of the Imperial regime, which was exacerbated by a hostile rhetorical environment. Upon assuming power, the MSPD was hesitant and defensive but grew into their position of leadership, winning the largest portion of votes in the January 19th election of 1919 as well as the early elections of the Weimar republic. / History

On December 11, 1782 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, a fifty-two year old English immigrant named William Beadle murdered his wife and four children and took his own life. Beadle’s erstwhile friends were aghast. William was no drunk. He was not abusive, foul-tempered, or manifestly unstable. Since arriving in 1772, Beadle had been a respected merchant in Wethersfield good society. Newspapers, pamphlets, and sermons carried the story up and down the coast. Writers quoted from a packet of letters Beadle left at the scene. Those letters disclosed Beadle’s secret allegiance to deism and the fact that the War for Independence had ruined Beadle financially, in his mind because he had acted like a patriot not a profiteer. Authors were especially unnerved with Beadle’s mysterious past. In a widely published pamphlet, Stephen Mix Mitchell, Wethersfield luminary and Beadle’s one-time closest friend, sought answers in Beadle’s youth only to admit that in ten years he had learned almost nothing about the man print dubbed a “monster.” This macabre story of family murder, and the fretful writing that carried the tale up and down the coast, is the heart of my dissertation. A microhistory, the project uses the transatlantic life, death, and print “afterlife” of William Beadle to explore alienation, anonymity, and unease in Britain’s Atlantic empire. The very characteristics that made the Atlantic world a vibrant, dynamic space—migration, commercial expansion, intellectual exchange, and revolutionary politics, to name a few—also made anxiety and failure ubiquitous in that world. Atlantic historians have described a world where white migrants crisscrossed the ocean to improve their lives, merchants created new wealth that eroded the power of landed gentry, and ideas fueled Enlightenment and engendered revolutions. The Atlantic world was indeed such a place. Aside from conquest and slavery, however, Atlantic historians have tended to elide the uglier sides of that early modern Atlantic world. William Beadle crossed the ocean three times and recreated himself in Barbados and New England, but migrations also left him rootless—unknown and perhaps unknowable. Transatlantic commerce brought exotic goods to provincial Connecticut and extended promises of social climbing, but amid imperial turmoil, the same Atlantic economy rapidly left such individuals financially bereft. Innovative ideas like deism crossed oceans in the minds of migrants, but these ideas were not always welcome. Beadle joined the cause of the American Revolution, but amid civil war, it was easy to run afoul of neighboring patriots always on the lookout for Loyalists. Beadle was far from the only person to suffer these anxieties. In the aftermath of the tragedy, commentators strained to make sense of the incident and Beadle’s writings in light of similar Atlantic fears. The story resonated precisely because it raised worries that had long bubbled beneath the surface: the anonymous neighbor from afar, the economic crash out of nowhere, modern ideas that some found exhilarating but others found distressing, and violent conflict between American and English. In his print afterlife, William Beadle became a specter of the Atlantic world. As independence was won, he haunted Americans as well, as commentators worried he was a sign that the American project was doomed to fail. / History

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